Aaron Jones believes he’s now entering his prime

Aaron Jones believes he’s now entering his prime

The shelf life for running backs is much shorter than it is for most premium positions in football. Heck, the shelf life for a good running back is, on average, short for a good professional athlete in any profession.

Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones, who will turn 30-years-old in December, is entering his 8th NFL season. Yet, Jones believes he’s now entering the physical prime of his career.

“I feel like every year, I’m getting better and better, and last year I felt like I was just about to start entering my prime,” Jones recently told Dave Campbell of the Associated Press.

Jones was limited to just 11 games with the Green Bay Packers in 2023 after dealing with a hamstring injury early in the season. He rushed for 656 yards on 142 carries–averaging out to 4.6 yards per carry, tied for the lowest mark of his career–while corralling 30 catches for 233 yards. His three combined touchdowns (two rushing, one receiving) was a career low, notching fewer than four for the first time since his rookie season in 2017.

However, Jones had a very strong end to his 2024 campaign, tallying 584 rushing yards (5.7 ypc) and three touchdowns in his final five combined games, helping Green Bay advance to the Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers.

“Those last five kind of showed, like, hey, the game’s slowing down a little more and more for me,” Jones said earlier this week. “I can see different things, and I’m able to hit different holes or set dudes up the way I want to, versus maybe before I hadn’t been able to because the game was still a little fast.”

Jones signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the intradivisional rival Vikings in March a day after getting released by Green Bay. He’s likely to split carries with third-year running back Ty Chandler, who’s totaled 481 yards on 4.5 yards and three scores per carry through two seasons in purple-and-gold.

Minnesota was third in pass percentage in each of Kevin O’Connell‘s first two seasons as head coach–in part due to poor run blocking that made it difficult for an older Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison to succeed. Jones is a better runner than both right now, which could mean that Minnesota leads to a more balanced attack to take pressure off first-year Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.

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